AMÉLIA MUGE & MICHALES LOUKOVIKAS
ARCHiPELAGOS / Passages
III. MACARONESIA
(Macárōn Nẽsoe, Fortunate Isles)
● Out There Amid the Sea
● Wheat Dance ● Swinging Lament
/PORTUGUÊS/ ARCHiPELAGOS • III. MACARONÉSIA
/ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ/ ΑΡΧΙΠΕΛΑΓΟΣ • III. ΜΑΚΑΡΟΝΗΣΙΑ
ARCHiPELAGOS / Passages: AMÉLIA MUGE & MICHALES LOUKOVIKAS
04. Out There Amid the Sea
– Traditional songs of the Canaries and the Azores, Amélia Muge
• Arranged by António José Martins, A. Muge
“Well, I was born in the sea / and my godfather was a sargo
and if I matter or don’t matter / my godfather’s here to say.”It seems they came out of nowhere / out there amid the vast sea
drawn by the hand of big waves, / I wonder what they would say,
while dancing they love to make rounds / to depart and to return.Macaronesia…
A land that people say / is beyond the end of the world,
archipelagos of lava / of fears, frights and enigmas,
but also a land of lovers / with their sighs and affections.Mariana from Madeira, / her mother’s from Argentina,
when visiting the Canaries / Moroccan bracelets she carries.“Row in a row, / rowing boat from Azores,
Row far, my little rowing boat.
Row in a row, / rowing boat with four oars.”
• Adapted into English by Michales Loukovikas
• Voice: A. Muge / Vocals: Maria Monda, A. Muge • Braguesa guitar: A. Muge
Clarino: Manos Achalinotópoulos / D. Bass: António Quintino / Ney: Harris Lambrakis
Percussion: José Salgueiro, A. Muge / Piano: Filipe Raposo / Violin: Kyriakos Gouventas
●
● Macaronesia: a group of four archipelagos in the North Atlantic off the coast of Africa and Europe. It consists of the Azores and Madeira, belonging to Portugal, the Canaries, being a part of Spain, and Cape Verde. The name is derived from the Hellenic term Μακάρων Νῆσοι (Macárōn Nẽsoe, or Fortunate Isles, Isles of the Blessed), used by geographers for the Elysian islands to the west of the Pillars of Heracles (Strait of Gibraltar). They were semi-legendary isles in the Western (Atlantic Ocean) near the encircling River Oceanus, a winterless earthly paradise, which for the poet Hesiod were the Elysian Fields, inhabited by Greek heroes. Strabo identified them with the isles of the Hesperides.
05. Wheat Dance
– Traditional song of the Canaries, Amélia Muge
• Arranged by António José Martins, A. Muge
“Don Juan Periñal’s got a sandy land,
a grain of wheat he wishes to sow,
he sows on the hilltop, he reaps in the sea.”Macaronesia…
“That’s how he sows it, and tills it, and loads it,
and that’s how my love teaches me how to dance.
That’s how he sifts it, and grinds it, and eats it,
and that’s how my love teaches me how to dance.”A dragon tree that was lost in / the chorus of blowing wind
sprang up and fell in the sea / hearing perhaps, well, who knows,
maybe the voice of Cesária / was the reason why he fell.Macárōn Nẽsoe…
• Adapted into English by Michales Loukovikas
• Voices: Rita Maria, A. Muge / Vocals: Maria Monda, A. Muge, Michales Loukovikas •
Clarino: Manos Achalinotópoulos / D. Bass: António Quintino / Ney: Harris Lambrakis
Percussion: José Salgueiro, A. Muge / Piano: Filipe Raposo / Violin: Kyriakos Gouventas
Dracaena draco (Dragon tree)
●
● Dragon tree or Dracaena draco (from the Greek δράκαινα δράκος, female/male dragon): a plant native to the archipelagos of Macaronesia. It can live for hundreds of years, producing large trees, but it is vulnerable, due to the destruction of its habitat: it is relatively common in the Canaries, but rare in Madeira and most of the Azores. It is a symbol of the island of Tenerife. ● Cesária Évora (1941 – 2011): a singer from Cape Verde, known as the Queen of Morna and also nicknamed the Barefoot Diva for performing without shoes. She has been the best internationally famous singer of morna, a music and dance genre considered as her homeland’s national music, often played with cavaquinho, clarinet, accordion, violin, piano, and guitar.
Cesária Évora on a 2000 escudos banknote of Cape Verde
06. Swinging Lament
– Amélia Muge
• Arranged by Michales Loukovikas, António José Martins
While listening to a morna / a voice will set the tone
singing of our land and how it feels / to be away from home.While listening to a morna / a voice will set the tone
singing of our land, her awesome beauty, / her only real gemstone.Cesária sings while raining, / this arid land starts dreaming,
Cesária sings, winds blowing, / her moving swinging lament.Oh, let them pass…
• Adapted into English by Michales Loukovikas
• Voice: A. Muge / Vocals: Maria Monda, A. Muge • D. Bass: António Quintino
Guitar: Dimitris Mystakidis / Ney: Harris Lambrakis / Percussion: José Salgueiro, A. Muge
Piano: Filipe Raposo / Violin: Kyriakos Gouventas
Periplus CD 